Mohammad Aslam Watanjar

Mohammad Aslam Watanjar (1946-24 November 2000) was Minister of Internal Affairs from 1988 to 1990 and Defense of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1990 to 1992. He was the main leader of the 1978 Saur Revolution.

Biography
Mohammad Aslam Watanjar was born to the Ghilzlai Pashtun tribe in Paktia Province. Trained in the Soviet Union, he became a general of the Kingdom of Afghanistan. In 1978, Watanjar led a Soviet-backed coup d'etat against the Republic of Afghanistan, killing President Mohammed Daoud Khan and establishing the communist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. He served as Minister of Internal Affairs from 1988 to 1990, when he was made Minister of Defense, commanding the Afghan National Army (ANA) against Mujahideen rebels. After the fall of Kabul in 1992, he fled in exile to Odessa in Ukraine, where he died of cancer in 2000.